Various savage nations have dominion in this country; the Guaycuru is the most distinguished. At the present day they are divided into three bodies; one of which, without any alliance with other nations, live along the western margin of the Paraguay, subdivided into various hordes: the most southern are called Linguas by the neighbouring Spaniards; and when they infest the aldeias of the province of St. Cruz de la Sierra, are there known by the name _Xiriquanos_; others have the appellation of _Cambaz_. Those who possess the eastern vicinity of the same river, constitute the other two bodies; the southern are allied with the Spaniards, the northern with the Portuguese. The Fecho dos Morros, or an approximating situation, is the separating line. No difference is remarked of origin, idiom, and usages, amongst these three portions of Indians, otherwise declared enemies to each other. The allies of the Portuguese, extending from the Mondego southward, are divided into seven hordes, or large aldeias, generally friends to each other, and without the least difference in any respect. Chagoteo, Pacachodeo, Adioeo, Atiadeo, Oleo, Laudeo, and Cadioeo, are the names by which they are distinguished. In none of these aldeias, which would be better designated as large towns, are there any acknowledged superior to the rest. Each horde is composed of three classes of persons; the first, are a species of noblesse, entitled _captains_, and whose wives and daughters have the distinction of _donas_; the second, are denominated _soldiers_, or men whose military obedience descends from father to son; and the third, _captives_ or _slaves_, comprising the prisoners of war and their descendants. There are but a few of the first in each aldeia, the second are very numerous, and the third exceed many times the number of the others taken conjointly. The captains and soldiers have an intermixed origin, and their title of gentility is _joage_. The slaves are of various nations, acquired in war, never undertaken with any other object, than for the augmentation of prisoners, in the number of which consists the degree of nobility, or distinction of the captains. These irruptions are exterminatory, taking away the lives of the elder people and the liberty of the younger. Such youthful captives soon forget their idiom and customs, and adopt those of the Guaycurus, and never abscond, as their masters do not occupy them in any thing. It is reputed highly degrading for a senhor, or lord, to contract marriage with his slave; the son treats with contempt the mother who bore him by a slave.